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 U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker granted a temporary restraining
order through Aug. 6, blocking the state from enforcing that ban and
other restrictions that abortion-rights advocates said would have
sharply reduced the number of medical doctors allowed to perform the
abortions in the state.
"The record at this stage of the proceedings indicates that Arkansas
women seeking abortions face an imminent threat to their
constitutional rights," Baker wrote in her 159-page order.
Arkansas is among a wave of Republican-controlled U.S. states that
recently passed new restrictions on abortion.
Some of these measures -- including Alabama's outright ban making no
exceptions for rape or incest -- are aimed at prompting the newly
enshrined 5-4 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court to
overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that upheld a woman's right
to terminate her pregnancy.
Abortion is one of the most divisive social issues in the United
States, with opponents often citing religious beliefs to call it
immoral while abortion-rights advocates say limiting access to it
infringes on women's rights to control their bodies.
The abortion-rights advocates, including the American Civil
Liberties Union of Arkansas, who filed the suit on June 26, said
they would seek to make the ruling permanent.
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"We're relieved that these bans and restrictions have been blocked
from taking effect and we're determined to see them struck down for
good," Holly Dickson, legal director and interim executive director
of the ACLU of Arkansas, said in a statement.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge called the ruling
"frustrating, but not unforeseen," and said the state would continue
to defend its abortion restrictions.
"The action was only the initial step and I anticipate further
action in the near future in our defense of these laws that protect
the life of mothers and their unborn children," Rutledge said in a
statement.
Besides the ban on abortions beyond 18 weeks of pregnancy, roughly
the middle of the second trimester, the restrictions require that
only Arkansas-licensed physicians who are board-certified or board
eligible in obstetrics and gynecology may perform abortions.
The restrictions also bar women from having an abortion "solely on
the basis" of tests indicating the fetus has Down syndrome.
(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and
Bernadette Baum)
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